Dogs enter pet door, then maul woman

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MELISSA SANTOS AND M. ALEXANDER OTTO;
The News Tribune
Published: August 22nd, 2007 01:00 AM

Two pit bulls severely mauled a disabled woman as she lay in her bed Tuesday morning in the Wauna area of the Key Peninsula.
The dogs, which did not belong to the woman, apparently entered her home through a pet door.

The woman, in her 50s, was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where she was being treated for severe injuries. Animal control officer Brian Boman, who responded at the scene, said the woman had bites and scratches on her face, arms and legs.

“It’s probably the worst mauling our guys have ever seen,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer.

The woman tried to shoot the dogs, then broke free and fought her way to her car. She locked herself inside, then called 911 at 8:53 a.m., Troyer said.

Firefighters were the first to respond, arriving in minutes. They locked the dogs in the house, treated the woman’s injuries and called an ambulance. Pierce County Animal Control arrived about 10 a.m.

Boman said he and a deputy had to use pepper spray on one of the dogs, then used control sticks – leashes attached to the end of long poles — to subdue them.

“They were highly aggressive,” Boman said. “They were trying to attack us even through the sliding glass door.”

The dogs were taken to the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County and will probably be killed, Troyer said.

The pit bulls also killed a Jack Russell terrier that entered the house, Troyer said. The Jack Russell belonged to neighbor Rick Russell and his son Ricky, 10.

“I thought he was out playing or something,” Ricky said.

Deputies assume the Jack Russell was responding to the commotion in the neighbor’s house and was attacked upon arrival, Troyer said.

Zach Martin said he owns one of the pit bulls, a 2-year-old female named Betty, and was taking care of the other, a male offspring named Tank, while his owner was out of town.

Martin said he had Tank chained up in his backyard because of a past incident when the two dogs got out and caused trouble together, but he allowed Betty to run around the fenced backyard. On Tuesday, he found the chain broken and both the dogs gone.

“We never saw it coming. They’re the kinds of dogs you’d let play with your babies,” Martin said.

Martin said he doesn’t let the dogs roam freely and doesn’t know how they got out. “It looks like one of them might have chewed through the fence,” he said. The male dog, Tank, is a digger, he said, which is why he kept him chained.

The woman who was attacked lives in the 10600 block of 132nd Street Court Northwest in the Wauna area.

Boman said animal control officers have had past run-ins with the pit bulls, but couldn’t say exactly how many.

Neighbors reported multiple incidents during the past year in which dogs owned by Martin threatened people.

Ken Wick said Betty and another pit bull cornered him in his garage about two months ago. He said he had to shoot at them with a BB gun to get them to go away.

The same day, the dogs charged at a little girl on a bicycle and cornered neighbor Brad King in his home, Wick said. King said he called the police about the dogs because they were snarling at both the front and the back doors of his house and preventing him and his family from leaving. Last year, two dogs being cared for by Martin attacked King’s dog and broke its jaw, King said.

A neighbor down the street, Neal Fortner, said one of Martin’s pit bulls snarled at him and prevented him from getting into his truck this year. Fortner had to throw rocks at the dog before he could safely get inside, he said.

‘This is the second or third time this has almost happened,” Fortner said. “(The owners) have had their chances.”

Martin’s next-door neighbors, Mark and Sue Nelson, said the dogs involved in the attack seemed to cause problems only when they were together. When she’s not around another pit bull, Martin’s dog Betty is great, they said.

“There’s times when we’ve had her together with our dog and she did fine,” Mark Nelson said. “She’s a good little dog.”

King, who lives next door to both Martin and the victim, said the woman who was attacked suffered from muscular dystrophy and had other health problems. She had to spend a lot of time in bed resting, he said.

“She’s on disability, she doesn’t have anything,” King said. “I bring her groceries sometimes. She’s a good girl.”

Martin said he wishes he could take back what happened. He said wants to do anything he can to help the victim and the family of the Jack Russell terrier that was killed.

“They broke into a lady’s house and I can’t defend that,” he said. “All I can do is try to help with the process.”

Troyer said Pierce County Animal Control is investigating and it is possible the owner could face criminal charges.

from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/138425.html

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M. ALEXANDER OTTO
The News Tribune
Published: August 23rd, 2007 06:24 AM

When Sue Gorman went to bed Monday night, she left her sliding glass door open a crack, as she often does. That way, her beloved service dog, Misty, and Misty’s playmate Romeo could come and go as they pleased. But she forgot to put a nail in the door frame that kept it from being pushed farther open.
It was a mistake that nearly killed her.


• Video - Gorman recounts the attack

Tuesday morning, as Gorman lay sleeping with Misty and Romeo, a neighbor’s Jack Russell terrier, two pit bulls forced their way through the unsecured slider and attacked.

One of the pit bulls, a female named Betty, had tried to attack Misty before, Gorman said.

“She really has it in for my dog,” Gorman said. She “instigated the whole thing. They wanted to kill my dog.”

She said the pit bulls began attacking her when she tried to shield Romeo, a much smaller dog, from attack. Romeo was injured and later died.

Gorman described the ordeal at a news conference Wednesday morning at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where she was being treated for deep lacerations to her face, forearms, back and breasts.

She might go home in a few days, but could be in the hospital longer if doctors determine her forearms need skin grafts, said trauma surgeon Paul Inouye.

Gorman, 59, was sound asleep when the two pit bulls escaped from a neighbor’s backyard and ran into her house.

Gorman lives alone and is disabled because of a brain injury sustained in childhood. Misty has been trained to warn Gorman if she’s about to have a seizure.

When the pit bulls ran into the bedroom, Misty fled. They turned on Romeo.

“It was really horrible what they did to him,” Gorman said. “It was butchery.”

Gorman tried to save the little dog, but the handgun she keeps in her bedroom wouldn’t go off. She then tried to beat the dogs off Romeo with a staff.

At one point, Gorman said, she managed to scoop up the Jack Russell and put him in a closet.

The pit bulls then turned on her. Betty led the attack, leaping at her face and nose.

Gorman had been angry fighting for Romeo’s life. Now she was afraid for her own. Gorman said she thought she’d be killed if the dogs got to her throat.

The pit bulls, in the meantime, had managed to open the closet.

They “pulled Romeo out of the closet and started ripping him up,” Gorman said.

She knew Romeo was beyond help, and used the distraction to back out of the bedroom.

She closed the door, then took her phone with her out the sliding glass door and called 911 just before 9 a.m.

She found Misty safe outside and locked herself in her car with her dog, waiting for help to arrive.

“I was really scared for” Misty, Gorman said. “She’s my soul mate.”

Gorman was in a wheelchair as she told her story Wednesday morning, with stitches across her nose, her lip and her forehead.

Her lower arms were bandaged to the elbows, with blood seeping through the bandages on her right hand.

Misty sat at her side at first, then on her lap. Friends had brought the dog to the hospital.

Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, said deputies and animal control officers have responded to two complaints about the two pit bulls running loose before, but neither of those incidents resulted in a citation or a fine.

Once when officers were called, they found the dogs secured by the time they arrived and issued a warning to Betty’s owner, who wasn’t home.

Another time they responded to a complaint about one of the dogs charging a child on a bicycle, but no one was injured.

Betty’s owner, Zach Martin, was watching the other pit bull, a male named Tank, while its owner was out of town. He said Betty normally is well behaved and acts up only when she gets together with other dogs.

“It’s just when she gets in that pack mentality,” Martin said Tuesday. “By herself, I could walk Betty through a park without a leash.”

Martin said he doesn’t know how the dogs got out, because he kept them in a fenced backyard and secured Tank on a chain. He found the chain broken the day of the incident, he said.

Gorman said she’s called 911 about the dogs before, and several months ago chased them out of the house when they came in looking for Misty.

She called the dogs’ owners “nice people” and said they repaired a fence hole when asked, but the pit bulls started getting out again.

“I know pit bulls. Some are very nice dogs. Not all are like that,” she said.

Martin has relinquished ownership rights to Betty, Troyer said. That clears the way for the dog to be killed.

Officials were working Wednesday to get the owner of Tank to also relinquish rights to the dog, Troyer said, and were planning to pursue a court order to get custody of the dog if necessary.

Gorman said she wasn’t sure what should happen to the dogs’ owners.

Troyer said Martin and Tank’s owner could face criminal charges. The case is being reviewed by the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office.

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/139265.html

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By Brad Haynes
Seattle Times staff reporter

The owner of two pit bulls that mauled a Pierce County woman in her home and killed another dog has been cited twice in the past three years for letting the dogs run loose in the neighborhood, according to district-court records.

Now the dogs likely will be euthanized, and their owner could face felony charges.

Pierce County sheriff's deputies have previously visited the owner's home outside of Gig Harbor, according to spokesman Ed Troyer, posting multiple warnings on the door about the dogs running loose.

Sue Gorman, 59, said that several months ago the pit bulls entered her home through an open door and she managed to force them back out.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, though, the animals surprised Gorman as she slept in bed, biting her face, chest and limbs. She is expected to remain hospitalized until at least Friday after the mauling that Pierce County animal-control officer Brian Boman called "the worst attack in my career in animal control."

Gorman said she has called 911 several times in the past six to nine months about the larger pit bull, Betty.

"She's so vicious, she should be destroyed," said Gorman of Betty. "There's nothing to keep her from doing it again."

Troyer said Betty and another pit bull were taken into custody Tuesday and will likely be killed. One of the dogs has already been signed over to be destroyed, he said, and the county will seek a court order to destroy the other one if it does not receive the owner's permission.

The dogs entered Gorman's home through a sliding-glass door she leaves partially open so her cats and small sheltie dog can pass through. The sheltie is a service dog Gorman has because she suffers partial seizures.

Tuesday morning, Gorman said, she had forgotten to lock it in that position and the pit bulls pushed it open, probably pursuing her sheltie or a neighbor's Jack Russell terrier that they eventually killed.

Gorman tried to fight them off with a stick and a handgun that would not fire, eventually escaping to her car where she called 911.

According to Washington state law, a dog owner is liable for damages to a bitten person, "regardless of the former viciousness of such dog or the owner's knowledge of such viciousness."

Prosecutors may also charge a dog owner with a felony if the dog attacks and seriously injures a person. That charge is punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of up to $10,000, but prosecutors must prove "that the owner of the dog either knew or should have known that the dog was potentially dangerous."

Pierce County prosecutors have not yet filed charges in the case. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Phil Sorenson said Wednesday afternoon that law-enforcement officials had not yet referred the case to him.

source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003849268_pitbull23m.html

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Local governments take different approaches to regulating potentially dangerous dogs. Some single out pit bulls, but most target behavior.

MIKE ARCHBOLD;
The News Tribune
Published: August 23rd, 2007 06:21 AM

How welcome are pit bulls in South Sound communities? It varies. At least two cities have taken a pro-active, breed-specific approach to dangerous dogs while most others wait for a first bite or the first menacing behavior before regulating them.

The East Pierce County city of Buckley for many years has had an outright ban on pit bulls and other dogs considered dangerous.

Auburn last year established a list of 12 “potentially dangerous” breeds of dogs, two of them pit bull breeds. Owners must register them with the city.

But in Tacoma and Pierce County, a dog first must bite, attack or menace someone before authorities take notice. Their laws don’t target any breeds.

Some of the most publicized pit bull attacks and confiscations – including Tuesday’s attack on a woman in her Key Peninsula home – took place in unincorporated Pierce County.

But at this time county officials don’t plan to request that specific breeds be banned, though they are reviewing their animal control ordinance.

Federal Way also waits for a dog to seriously hurt someone before action is taken. But unlike other cities, it has a no-tolerance policy: The dog must leave the city.

From January 2006 through early this month, there have been 20 reported incidents of dogs attacking people in Federal Way, said Cathy Schrock, city support services manager. The severity of those incidents ranged from scratches to people seeking medical attention, she said.

Federal Way last year considered a breed-specific ban that included pit bulls, but it eventually backed off.

Glen Bui of the American Canine Foundation said breed bans do not stop dangerous dog attacks.

What is needed, the Belfair resident said, are laws like Federal Way’s that establish strict penalties for owners. He said Pierce County needs tougher measures.

Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis said he thinks his city’s ordinance has been working.

Sgt. Scott Near, a spokesman with the Auburn Police Department, said a check of records found that only one owner had been cited by police for not registering his dogs or keeping them contained.

Some examples of dog ordinances:


BUCKLEY

Regulation: Pit bulls are banned outright. Also banned is any other dog with a tendency to attack people or domestic animals without provocation.

Penalties: The city can seize a dog that fits the criteria and order a hearing. If the dog is found to be dangerous, the city can remove it from the residence or destroy it.

A few dogs have been removed from the city. Only one dog has been put down in the last six years, and it was at the owner’s request.


AUBURN

Regulations: A dozen breeds, including pit bulls and bull terriers, are automatically tagged as “potentially dangerous” and their owners must register them with the city. Those dogs move up to “dangerous” if they bite someone.

Then owners must confine the dog with a warning sign, muzzle and leash the dog anytime it’s outside its enclosure, have at least $250,000 in insurance or bond to pay anyone injured by the dog, pay $100 a year to register the dog and have a microchip implanted for identification.

Other breeds also can be listed as “potentially dangerous” if they bite or attack and can become “dangerous” if they bite again. Owners of dogs at risk of being deemed “dangerous” can send their pets to a training course to avoid the label.

Penalties: Failing to comply with registration could lead to a fine of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail. For other violations, the fine could be up to $5,000 and a year in jail.


PIERCE COUNTY

Regulations: Dogs are declared “potentially dangerous” if they bite, attack or menace a person or animal. Owners must then pay $250 for a permit and renew it annually for $50. The dog must be confined to the owner’s premises and be leashed or muzzled when off premises. The dog must be tattooed or have a microchip for identification.

Penalty: Violators of “potentially dangerous dog” restrictions are guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. If any animal injures humans, domestic animals or livestock, the owner or person with custody faces a maximum of a year in jail and/or a $5,000 fine.

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Pit bull attack not first trouble

M. ALEXANDER OTTO
The News Tribune
Published: August 25th, 2007 01:00 AM

Long before Sue Gorman was severely attacked by two pit bulls, there had been a problem with dangerous dogs on the lose in her Key Peninsula neighborhood.
Since 2000, Pierce County authorities have responded to 16 complaints involving dog problems at the home of the two pit bulls who attacked the disabled woman Tuesday.

Six visits were for calls that neighbors made about aggressive dogs, six were for calls about roaming dogs, two were for reports of neglect, one was to pick up a stray, and one was for Tuesday’s attack, said Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer.

“That’s a lot of calls. (Tuesday) is not the first time they’ve had issues,” Troyer said Friday.

On Tuesday, two pit bulls from the property at 10610 132nd St. Court N.W. mauled Sue Gorman, 59, a disabled woman who lives alone, in her home after she tried to fend them off a third dog, which was eventually killed.

Troyer said the 15 previous calls resulted in eight citations – six for violations of leash laws and two for not having dogs licensed.

County prosecutors are weighing whether to file charges against the pit bulls’ owners in connection with Tuesday’s attack.

Troyer did not have additional information Friday about who had been cited at the house.

The owner of the property, Shellie Rae Wilson, did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

Wilson’s relationship to the property since 2000 is uncertain.

The Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s Office shows she bought the property for $80,000 in 2003. However, another county record states she was the owner in January 2000.

Meanwhile, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has begun forwarding reports concerning Tuesday’s pit bull attack to county prosecutors.

To file felony charges, prosecutors must show the owners of the dogs “had reasonable cause to know these dogs were potentially problematic,” said deputy prosecuting attorney Phil Sorenson.

“I’m not sure whether we will be able to do that,” he said.

The owner of one of the pit bulls, Zach Martin, said earlier this week that he was watching the other dog while its owner was out of town, and that he didn’t know how the dogs got out. Martin is Wilson’s son, according to KIRO-TV.

Gorman underwent surgery Friday on her forearms at St. Joseph Medical Center, hospital spokesman Gale Robinette said. Gorman is being treated there for deep lacerations to her face, her back, her forearms and her breasts.

Robinette said Gorman was in good spirits and could be discharged Monday.

Gorman’s friends have set up a fund for her at Sound Credit Union. They said money is needed to clean up and repair Gorman’s home before she returns from the hospital.

They also hope to put a fence around her yard and get some type of help – massage therapy maybe – for Gorman’s beloved assistance dog, Misty, “who hasn’t been herself” after seeing Gorman seriously injured and the other dog attacked, said friend Leana Beasley.

How to help

Donations to the Sue Gorman Fund can be made at any of Sound Credit Union’s 10 area branches. You can reach the bank at 253-383-2016 or at www.soundcu.com.

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/140820.html

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JOHN TRUMBO
Tri-City Herald
Published: September 1st, 2007 01:00

PASCO, Franklin County – A pair of pit bulls mangled Sue Gorman’s life last week, but a dog lover and friend from Pasco hopes to help.
The Aug. 21 attack on the disabled 59-year-old woman has left her virtually homeless because of the contamination of her Key Peninsula home from blood, pepper spray and bacteria.

“She needs to have a fence built and all of the living room blinds replaced,” said Melissa Williams, who has known Gorman for about three years. Both are disabled, use service dogs and belong to the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound.

Williams said Gorman told her that “a hazmat team looked at the home and said everything in that house that is fabric is contaminated by the blood and pepper spray. They said they will try to save the family pictures.”

Police used pepper spray to repel the pit bulls.

In December, a good Samaritan stepped into Williams’ life to give her a special wheelchair, which required shipping from Utah.

She says assisting Gorman is her chance to “pay it forward,” by helping raise donations to cover medical bills and replace furnishings damaged in the pit bull attack.

The Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound has set up a fund for Gorman at branches of Sound Credit Union.

Gorman has lived with a traumatic brain injury since childhood, and a car accident in recent years left her partially paralyzed.

She lives alone and was in bed when the two pit bulls escaped from a neighbor’s, entered her home through a sliding door and attacked her.

During the melee, the dogs also killed a Jack Russell terrier belonging to another neighbor. Bloody evidence of the attacks was found on furniture, walls and flooring throughout the house.

Gorman’s service dog, a Sheltie named Misty, escaped, but Gorman suffered serious injuries on her face, her arms and her chest while trying to get away.

Williams has bought a used couch and a love seat that FedEx agreed to ship free from the Tri-Cities to Gorman next week. A Tri-Cities furniture store donated the shipping materials.

Gorman will need much more to make her home of 25 years livable again, Williams said Friday.

The two dogs that attacked Gorman were being held at the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County and were expected to be euthanized.

Gorman spent six days in St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Tacoma being treated for her injuries. She’s been staying with a friend in University Place since Sunday.

“It’s just herself and her service dog, and now they are homeless,” Williams said. “She just needs prayers and some help.”

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/145699.html

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'It’s like my dream home’ - Volunteers help victim o

MELISSA SANTOS
he News Tribune
Published: September 10th, 2007 01:00 AM

Sue Gorman couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw what volunteers did to renovate her home.
The 59-year-old victim of a pit bull mauling came home Sunday for the first time since the attack in her bedroom Aug. 20. Instead of the home she left, damaged by blood stains and pepper spray fumes, she found a freshly painted, remodeled house.

“That’s my house?” she asked as a large van pulled away to give her first view of her new home and yard.

About 250 volunteers spent the weekend replacing just about everything in Gorman’s home: the walls, the carpeting, the appliances, the furniture, and even the picture frames on several family photos.

They also installed a new fence around her backyard and cleared her front yard of overgrown trees and debris.

“This is so wonderful,” Gorman said. “It’s like my dream home.”

The project started with a few of Gorman’s friends who decided they wanted to install a fence and clean up the mess left from the attack. Leana Beasley, the friend Gorman has been staying with since her release from the hospital, said the group soon realized there was more to do than they could handle alone.

That’s when two organizations, the Safe Streets Campaign and Need-a-Break Services, got involved. Need-a-Break executive director Bruce Bodine said his nonprofit, which provides people in need with services like home and auto repair, heard what Gorman’s friends were trying to do and wanted to help.

Bodine used his contacts with local contractors and suppliers to get many of the renovation materials donated. Then he and Safe Streets helped gather as many volunteers as possible.

“It’s very worthwhile to drive 3,000 miles to help Katrina victims, but you don’t have to drive 3,000 miles to help the person who lives across the fence,” Bodine said.

Neighbors gathered to watch Gorman’s homecoming Sunday. Many of them helped with the cleanup process.

“It’s bad what happened to her, but at least we can help fix her house,” said 12-year-old Steven O’Neal, who helped smooth concrete and lay mulch in Gorman’s yard Sunday.

Need-A-Break development director Julie Bodine estimated that the amount of work and materials that went into Gorman’s new home would have totaled $100,000 or more had she tried to pay for it herself.

Gorman was lying in her bed with her service dog, Misty, and a neighbor’s Jack Russell terrier when two pit bulls that escaped from a neighbor’s yard came into her home and attacked her the morning of Aug. 20. She went to the hospital with deep lacerations on her face, arms and breasts, and is regaining the use of her arms through physical therapy.

She said her favorite things about the new house are her new bedroom and the people who made it happen.

“I had no ideas I had this many friends in the world,” Gorman said.

from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/152293.html

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By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

Bob Walston saw the two pit bulls just as he rounded the corner in his quiet Mount Baker neighborhood early Tuesday morning, but it was too late.

The pit bulls were on him and his dog, Margaret Thatcher, within seconds.

Margaret Thatcher yelped in agony as the pit bulls tore into her tiny body despite Walton's efforts to shield her from the attack. Walston, 70, screamed for help and in pain as the pit bulls bit his arms in their frenzy to reach his dog.

All along Bella Vista Avenue South doors were flung open and people ran from their homes, some dressed for work, others in pajamas. When the two pit bulls ran off, neighbor Brent Fluvog managed to chase one down and capture it using his belt as a makeshift leash and collar.

Walston's injuries were minor, but his "Schnoodle" — a mixed poodle and schnauzer he and his wife had nicknamed "Maggie" — died shortly after the attack.

As troubling as the attack was for the Walstons and their neighbors, some are equally distressed with the response from police — or lack thereof. Animal control responded within minutes after neighbors called 911.

Police officers were not dispatched because the department did not receive any calls, said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson. Jamieson said the department's policy is to respond to all 911 calls reporting an attack in progress. He said 911 dispatchers have no record of receiving an emergency call from neighbors despite the insistence of at least one.

"We're still investigating why, if people did call 911, we didn't respond," Jamieson said.

Don Jordan, director of the Seattle Animal Shelter, said animal-control officers scoured the South Seattle neighborhood Tuesday and Wednesday in search of the tan-and-white pit bull that ran off after the attack. The dog that Fluvog captured, a 1- or 2-year-old female without identification tags, is being held in quarantine because it may have bitten Walston, he said.

"We respond to everything animal-related," Jordan said. "Animal bites are very high on our response list. We take every animal bite very seriously."

The animal will eventually be euthanized, Jordan said. Nobody has come forward to claim her.

Jordan said that more than half of the dogs at the shelter are pit bulls or pit-bull mixes and that about 30 percent of the dog-bite cases animal-control officers investigate involve the breed.

"Part of the problem is the sheer number of these animals in this community," he said. "This breed is out there in numbers. In 1990, when I started, the fad was Dobermans, then it was Rottweilers. Then in 1998 we started seeing pit bulls and pit mixes. It continues to be a fad."

Jordan said it's not uncommon to investigate fatal attacks on dogs involving pit bulls. Last month, the breed made local headlines after a Pierce County woman was mauled by two dogs that entered her home while she was sleeping. The dogs killed a Jack Russell terrier in the attack.

"They're not born ready to bite. This is a learned behavior," Jordan said. "I have come across just as many nice pit bulls as nasty ones."

Fluvog said that when he caught up with the female pit bull, the dog cowered before starting to lick his hands. He said he took off his belt, wrapped it around the animal's neck and led it back to the attack site. It wasn't until hours later that he thought what could have happened.

"When I look back at what I did, I think I took a chance that I wouldn't do again," Fluvog said Wednesday. "You hear pit bulls all the time being unpredictable, but me going up to it with my belt, that was a mistake. I got away with it."

Neighbor Kate Grutz said Walston's screams pulled her from bed to a window where she saw the dogs "leaping" at Walston in front of her house.

"There's still blood on the sidewalk," Grutz said.

Walston's wife, Lillian, 72, said she heard her husband's screams and Maggie's howling from inside their home, about a block away.

"There's a lot of people around here with little dogs," she said. "We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The Walstons said they planned to hold a memorial service in their backyard for Maggie on Wednesday night. They were asking friends, neighbors and relatives to attend the burial.

Since the attack, e-mails have been sent from Mount Baker community groups warning people to watch out for the stray pit bull. While Lillian Walston said she's going to start carrying bear mace and forbidding her grandchildren from walking to the park alone, Grutz said she armed herself with a stick Wednesday morning while going for a walk.

"In this neighborhood the general rule is we take care of our dogs," Grutz said.

source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003882042_pitbullattack13m.html

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Animal shelter orders owner to surrender pair

By LEVI PULKKINEN
P-I REPORTER

Since Maggie came into his life about two years ago, the walks had become routine for Bob Walston.

Tuesday's 7 a.m. stroll had been going like every other -- a short jaunt through the Mount Baker neighborhood where the 70-year-old Seattleite lives. But then Walston noticed an unattended pair of pit bulls crossing the street ahead of him.

The dogs were on top of Maggie immediately, tearing into the 9-pound schnauzer-poodle mix, he said.

Walston suffered superficial cuts to his hand. Maggie's wounds were more severe. She was put down hours later after surgery failed to repair her injuries.

"If the dog had gone any other way, I could have lived with it," Walston said. "The way it happened, it shouldn't have happened."

Walston was called to the Seattle Animal Shelter Thursday afternoon to identify one of the dogs involved that had been picked up at a house a few blocks from where the attack happened. A neighbor who came to Walston's aid on the 3600 block of Bella Vista Avenue South captured the other dog.

It's not yet clear how the dogs came to be loose, said Don Jordan, director of the municipal animal shelter. Jordan said the owner likely will be fined more than $1,000 and could face criminal charges.

Jordan said he's asked the owner to surrender the dogs, Remy and Chocolate, both about 9 months old, for euthanization. If the owner refuses, animal control will begin legal proceedings to take the dogs.

The dogs, which were licensed, had been reported on the loose once before, Jordan said. There's no evidence they'd previously attacked other dogs.

Seattle police didn't respond to the incident, said Officer Mark Jamieson, a department spokesman. He said an officer should have been on hand to document the attack and that the department is looking into why that didn't happen.

Pit bulls and bull mixes cause about 30 percent of dog bites reported in Seattle, Jordan said. The breed also accounts for about half of the dogs turned over to the shelter each year.

Walston said he doesn't understand the popularity of the large, sometimes aggressive breed. Still, he said he doesn't hold the dogs responsible.

"I'm not mad at the pit bulls," he said. "I'm mad at the owners. It shows a lack of responsibility."

source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/331595_dogs14.html

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DAVID WICKERT
The News Tribune
Published: September 15th, 2007 01:00 AM

A Pierce County animal control officer on Friday formally declared one of two pit bulls that attacked and severely injured a Key Peninsula woman last month to be dangerous under state law.
The county also is processing a dangerous dog declaration for the other pit bull involved in the Aug. 21 attack on Sue Gorman of Wauna.

Both dogs are being held by the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County while prosecutors consider criminal charges against their owners.

Officer Brian Boman served the declaration for one of the animals on Jacqueline Evans-Hubbard on Friday. Evans-Hubbard owns Tank, one of the two dogs that entered Gorman’s home through a sliding glass door and attacked her.

Gorman suffered bites and scratches on her face, arms and legs. The dogs also killed a Jack Russell terrier.

A similar declaration will soon be served on Zach Martin, the owner of Betty, the second dog involved in the attack.

Under state law, a dog is officially dangerous if it has severely injured a person with- out provocation. Dangerous dogs must be confined indoors unless they are leashed and muzzled or kept in a secured kennel.

Owners also must pay a $250 permit fee, have the animal microchipped, post warning signs and have a $250,000 insurance policy or bond.

Boman said it’s unlikely either dog involved in the attack will be released. He said the county plans to seek to have them euthanized.

from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/156573.html

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DAVID WICKERT
The News Tribune
Published: September 28th, 2007 01:00 AM

Pierce County officials have destroyed one of two pit bulls that attacked a Key Peninsula woman last month.
Jacqueline Evans-Hubbard, the owner of the pit bull named Tank, recently relinquished control of the dog and agreed to let him be euthanized, according to Lisa Drury, a supervisor in the county auditor’s office. Tank was put down at the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County on Tuesday.

Tank and another pit bull named Betty attacked Wauna resident Sue Gorman in her home Aug. 21. Gorman suffered severe bites and scratches on her face, arms and legs. The dogs also killed a Jack Russell terrier.

Since then, Tank and Betty have been held at the Humane Society while the county considers criminal charges against their owners.

The county’s Animal Control Division also officially declared both dogs as “dangerous” under state law. That would require the owners to keep the animals confined indoors unless they were kept in a secure kennel or leashed and muzzled.

However, given the seriousness of the attack on Gorman, animal control officials decided the dogs were too dangerous to remain at large.

Drury said Zach Martin, Betty’s owner, had not yet responded to the county’s dangerous dog declaration. If he does not respond by Oct. 5, the county will give him notice of its intent to euthanize Betty, Drury said.

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M. ALEXANDER OTTO
The News Tribune
Published: October 5th, 2007 01:00 AM

A Key Peninsula woman and her son were charged Thursday with two felony counts each of “owning a dog that attacks” in connection with a pit bull attack on a disabled women in her home.
Shellie Rae Wilson, 45, and her son, Zachary J. Martin, 18, were charged with one count each for the two dogs that attacked Sue Gorman, 59, on Aug. 21.

Charges are pending against a third person, according to charging documents filed Thursday.

The two pit bulls, Tank and Betty, were staying at Wilson and Martin’s house at 10610 132nd St. Court N.W. when the attack happened. Gorman suffered deep lacerations to her face, forearms, back and breasts.

A Jack Russell terrier the pit bulls attacked in Gorman’s home was killed.

Reached Thursday, Martin said, “I should be accountable for damages,” and that he has agreed to pay Gorman’s costs and the bill for the Jack Russell.

“But I don’t believe I should be charged as a criminal,” he said. “Hundreds of people know I never raised Betty to be a violent dog. I’m a good citizen.”

Wilson and Gorman could not be reached for comment.

Owning a dog that attacks is a felony with a maximum sentence of five years.

Under the law, it is a felony to own a dog that attacks someone when the owner “knew or should have known” that the dog was potentially dangerous.

Owning, for the purposes of charging, means “possessing, harboring, keeping, having an interest in, or having control or custody of an animal,” according to state code.

The charging documents say Martin owns Betty and the week of the attack was taking care of her offspring, Tank, who was owned by the third party. Tank was euthanized Sept. 25; Betty is being held at the Tacoma-Pierce County Humane Society as evidence in the case.

In charging documents, deputy prosecuting attorney Phil Sorensen makes the case that Wilson and Martin should have known the pit bulls might hurt someone.

An investigation by a county animal control officer “netted several reports from neighbors” about Tank and Betty’s “threatening and menacing demeanor toward neighbors of all ages and both sexes,” the documents state.

In one incident, Betty lunged at a boy who was inline skating. He had to kick her off “in order to escape,” according to documents.

A second neighbor told an animal control officer “he had been forced to throw rocks at the dogs, apparently Betty and Tank, in order to get into his vehicle that was parked in his own driveway,” the documents state

The charging papers give this account of the attack on Gorman:

She awoke “to snarls” and found two pit bulls attacking a neighbor’s Jack Russell terrier in her bedroom.

The pit bulls had gotten loose from Wilson’s backyard two doors down and entered the home through a sliding glass door Gorman kept cracked open for her own service dog.

The pit bulls turned on Gorman when she tried to save the terrier, which later died of its injuries. Gorman escaped and called 911 when the dogs returned their attention to the terrier.

Animal control responded and both dogs were subdued and impounded.

Martin believes what happened Aug. 21 is that Gorman got in the middle of a dog fight between the pit bulls and the Jack Russell, and that if she hadn’t, the dogs wouldn’t have turned on her.

“If they intended to kill her, she probably would have been killed,” he said. “We are going to fight this hard.”

• Neighbors and records detail a decade of problems with the two pit bulls that attacked Sue Gorman.


• Animal control officers want tougher laws, particularly to keep irresponsible owners from getting more dogs.

from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/171909.html

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City might restrict pet owners
Tacoma to soon consider overhaul of animal laws

JASON HAGEY
The News Tribune
Published: October 17th, 2007 01:00 AM

Pet owners who commit three or more animal control violations in a 24-month period could be declared “problem pet owners” and forced to surrender all of their animals under a sweeping update of Tacoma’s animal control ordinance.
The overhaul also would expand the definition of dangerous and potentially dangerous dogs, enact a complete ban on roosters in the city limits, and make it a civil infraction to sell or give away puppies or kittens born to an unlicensed animal. Owners would be required to include the mother’s license number in any published advertisements of puppies or kittens.

Tacoma City Council members heard about the proposed changes Tuesday during a staff report outlining the latest plan. It’s been in the works for about two years.

An ordinance is expected to come before the City Council sometime soon, though a date hasn’t been set.

The most controversial elements of an earlier proposal were dropped: A ban on livestock that included chickens, cows and horses; limiting the number of unaltered dogs and cats a resident could own at two each; a requirement that pet owners spay or neuter their animals, or buy a breeder’s license even if they don’t intend to breed them; and a plan to spay or neuter any animal picked up by an animal control officer. Under the current proposal, an owner could reclaim an unaltered animal as long as it’s properly licensed.

Councilwoman Julie Anderson said she believes the proposal achieves what council members set out to accomplish: It stiffens the rules regarding dangerous and potentially dangerous dogs, and it will lead to a reduction in pet overpopulation.

“It’s not as stringent as I would like, but it’s a good compromise,” Anderson said.

Mayor Bill Baarsma asked for an amendment making it possible to declare an animal a “dangerous dog” if it attacks a service animal and renders it unusable, even if the service animal isn’t killed or euthanized as a result of the attack.

Other changes being proposed include:

• Making it a violation to leave animal waste on public or private property, unless authorized.

• Making anyone younger than 18 ineligible to license pets.

• Making it a violation to improperly license a pet (to license an unaltered animal as an altered pet).

• Making it a crime to create or use counterfeit license tags.

• Adopting state law regarding poisoning of animals. Unlike the current city code, which makes it a misdemeanor to poison an animal, the state law includes exceptions for poisoning rodents and slugs.

The new rules would not change the cost of a license or change the limit on the number of dogs and cats a resident may own, which is six.

Tacoma’s rules regarding dangerous dogs don’t address a particular breed of dog, unlike some jurisdictions. Rather, they list the types of behavior that could get a dog labeled dangerous. They include an unprovoked attack that inflicts “severe injury” or kills a person; an unprovoked attack that kills or injures a domestic animal badly enough that it’s euthanized; and keeping a dog for the purpose of dog fighting.

Any dog declared dangerous must be euthanized or removed from the city, after any appeals are exhausted, according to city code.

from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/180936.html

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ADAM LYNN
The News Tribune
Published: October 19th, 2007 01:00 AM

A Key Peninsula woman and her son pleaded not guilty Thursday to felony charges stemming from a pit bull attack that left their neighbor badly hurt.

Earlier this month, prosecutors charged Shellie Rae Wilson, 45, and her son, Zachary J. Martin, 18, with two counts each of owning a dog that attacks.

Authorities contend two pit bulls under their care attacked Sue Gorman inside her home Aug. 21.

Gorman, 59, suffered numerous lacerations when attacked by the dogs, Betty and Tank.

Wilson and Martin were summoned to court Thursday to answer the charges.

Superior Court Judge Vicki Hogan released both on their own recognizance although she required them to report to jail to be photographed and fingerprinted.

They are scheduled to return to court Nov. 1.

Hogan also ordered that Martin have no contact with his pit bull, Betty, who currently is impounded at the Humane Society of Tacoma-Pierce County. Martin has tried unsuccessfully to regain custody of the dog recently, deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen said.

Tank, who was owned by a third person, was euthanized last month.

Charging papers state that Gorman woke up to find Betty and Tank attacking a neighbor’s Jack Russell terrier inside her bedroom.

The pit bulls escaped Wilson’s yard and entered Gorman’s house through a sliding glass door she left partially open for her service dog to use to get in and out, according to court papers.

The pit bulls turned on Gorman when she tried to save the smaller dog, which later died of its injuries.

Martin told The News Tribune earlier this month that he is willing to pay for Gorman’s medical costs and the bill for the Jack Russell but that he doesn’t think he should be prosecuted criminally.

“Hundreds of people know I never raised Betty to be a violent dog,” he said. “I’m a good citizen.”

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/182777.html

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Records show many years of problems

M. ALEXANDER OTTO
The News Tribune
Published October 20th, 2007 01:00 AM

Almost three years before a neighbor’s pit bulls attacked and seriously injured Sue Gorman, other dogs from the same Key Peninsula house menaced a 15-month-old girl.
Jaidenn Foster was with her mother, Jenna, in the front yard of the family home Sept. 7, 2004, when she said a chocolate Labrador retriever named Mocha and a German shepherd mix named Daisy came into the yard.

“She tried to pet them,” Jenna Foster said in a recent interview. “They pushed her down.”

The girl ran screaming for her mother, and the dogs pursued her, Foster said. She made it a few feet, then fell and scratched her face and a knee before her mother scooped her up and ran into the house. Jaidenn’s father, Howard Foster, ran out of the house with his son and chased the dogs off, he said.

Jaidenn wasn’t the only one who had close calls with dogs from Shellie Wilson’s house long before Gorman was attacked in her home and a neighbor boy’s Jack Russell terrier killed Aug. 21.

According to Pierce County records obtained by The News Tribune, animal control officers cited Wilson twice in 1998 at her previous residence and made 16 visits to her current home since 1999 for dog complaints from at least eight neighbors.

They cited Wilson a total of 10 times for roaming or unlicensed dogs.

But the anger of neighbors and repeat visits from county animal control officers didn’t solve the problem.

“I’m not surprised” someone was finally hurt, Howard Foster said recently.

Wilson – who with her son, Zach Martin, 18, pleaded not guilty Thursday to criminal charges in connection with the attack on Gorman – admitted to The News Tribune that there have been problems.

But she said her neighbors are exaggerating, the records might have some inaccuracies and that other neighbors’ dogs run free sometimes, too.

“Dogs get out. I don’t know what else to say,” Wilson said. “It’s not like we haven’t attempted” to keep them confined.

Wilson also said she’s been busy working two to three jobs to make ends meet, raising her son and caring for a one-time boyfriend seriously hurt in a construction accident in 2004.

“With priorities like that, I didn’t really care about the neighbors or the dogs,” said Wilson, 45.

Martin’s name appears only once in the records as the owner of one of the pit bulls that attacked Gorman, but Wilson’s name appears again and again as the person who wouldn’t or couldn’t keep the dogs behind a fence or on a leash.

County documents show that since 1999, Wilson has owned a series of dogs that attacked other people’s pets and threatened neighbors. The records also show that the dogs were allowed to roam, and that when the animals were impounded, Wilson got others.

They also contain numerous complaints from neighbors that Wilson’s dogs were neglected.

Warnings and citations did no good. The dog problems continued for almost a decade, the records show.

“I look at the many times we have been here and I wonder what it will take for this dog owner to start being more responsible,” Patrice Aarhaus wrote on Oct. 2, 2004. Aarhaus, at the time an animal control officer, had impounded Mocha and Daisy, not for the near-attack on Jaidenn Foster but because the animals were roaming and disturbing neighbors.

Just two weeks earlier, Wilson had told animal control that she’d gotten rid of the dogs. She wouldn’t answer the door on Oct. 1, according to records.

“All of the neighbors in the entire cul-de-sac have spoken to the owner at one time or another about the dogs, to no avail,” Aarhaus wrote.

Aarhaus was one of at least six officers to visit Wilson’s property over the years. On that day, she wrote Wilson four tickets totaling $412.

“I cited them on whatever I could just to hammer them,” Aarhaus said recently. “More than one person came up to me and said they were sick of this.”

However, the tickets and two others issued a little over a year ago for $206 were never paid, according to Pierce County District Court workers, and have been turned over to the county’s collection service.

Howard Foster and other neighbors said animal control should have done more.

“They are people who shouldn’t be allowed to have dogs because they don’t know how to take care of them,” he said.

Under current rules, Aarhaus said, animal control officers can’t prevent someone from getting a dog unless there’s a record of animal cruelty, which was never alleged against Wilson.

The only other options are citations and impoundments, even when they don’t work.

“There needs to be some kind of (law) that (irresponsible owners) are not allowed to have dogs for a certain number of years,” Aarhaus said.

The Tacoma City Council is considering changing the city’s animal control ordinance along those lines. Under the proposed change, pet owners who commit three or more animal control violations in a 24-month period could be declared “problem pet owners” and be made to give up their animals.


DANGEROUS SITUATIONS


Howard Foster’s call about the near-attack on his daughter in 2004 wasn’t his first complaint to animal control. Twice in 2001, he reported that dogs from Wilson’s home had come onto his yard and tried to attack his dog, according to records. They chased his wife, growling when she tried to shoo them off, he said.

Foster said he never received the forms he requested from animal control to start “dangerous dog” proceedings against Wilson.

He moved his family out of the neighborhood in 2005, in part, he said, to get away from the dog problems.

“I just got sick and tired of it,” he said.

He was always angry, Jenna Foster said, “because our kids (could not) go outside. Our son wanted to skateboard,” but the dogs would chase him.

Another neighbor, Ken Wick, agreed that Wilson and her son shouldn’t own dogs.

“It’s obvious they don’t know how to contain a dog, or have a lack of interest,” he said.

Wick has had his own run-in with Wilson’s dogs.

On Aug. 31, 2006, he pulled up into his driveway and two pit bulls from her house cornered him in his garage, he said. He shot at them with a BB gun and yelled for his wife to get his shotgun, but she couldn’t find the shells.

They ran off when Wick’s wife, Louise, came out of the house and yelled at them, she said.

The dogs charged Wick after having blocked Brad King and William Wold in their house across the street for an hour and half, according to records and King.

“Brad opened the side door to the garage and there were two pit bull dogs, one male, one female,” Wold wrote in a statement to animal control.

King said that the dogs might have been after the food he kept in his garage for his papillon, Toby, whose jaw was crippled in an attack by one of Wilson’s dogs and another neighborhood dog in 2004.

The pit bulls “started to bark and lunge at us,” Wold wrote. “We shut the door. The dogs went around the back and barked at us through the patio door.”

By the time animal control officer Tim Anderson arrived, they were gone.

“I contacted (Wilson), who admitted the dogs frequently get loose and run at large,” Anderson stated in his report on the incident. “She was unsure of the exact current location of both dogs.”

He wrote her a ticket for “animals at large” and another for “license required,” totaling $206. They haven’t been paid.

Other neighbors have had problems, too.

Ricky Russell, whose dog, Romeo, was killed by dogs from the Wilson house during the attack on Gorman, was almost attacked by one of the pit bulls from her house Feb. 22 as he rode a scooter in front of his house, records show.

“The pit bull charged up (to the boy) and almost attacked him,” the records state. “When the baby sitter yelled at the dog to go home, it started getting closer and started barking.”

The sitter was eventually able to drive the dog off.


DOGS BEING DOGS


Wilson’s neighbors don’t blame her dogs. They say the animals were just doing what dogs do when left on their own: form a pack, get territorial and scavenge for food. Sometimes it’s worse, said Aarhaus, the animal control officer.

When neglected and left to wander, “you set dogs up for being chased at, kicked and hit with rocks,” she said. So with every stranger, they start to think, “I’m going to attack before they get me.”

Records show that at least seven dogs have stayed at Wilson’s house since 1999 – Buck, Lucy and Mocha, Labrador retrievers; Daisy, the German shepherd mix; Bertha, a springer spaniel; and Betty and Tank, the pit bulls that attacked Gorman and the Jack Russell terrier.

Neighbors say there have been puppies, too, and dogs brought by people who lived with Wilson and her son temporarily.

“They always had new dogs there,” Jenna Foster said. “You felt sorry for the dogs. They were hungry.”

Sue Nelson, an animal lover with dogs of her own, lives next door to Wilson and made neglect reports about her to animal control five times since 2000.

She called once in 2000 to report dogs in her garbage looking for food, twice in 2001 to report dogs left for days without food or water, once in 2002 about dogs from Wilson’s running lose, and once in 2006 to report that Wilson had left a dog in heat tied up outside, drawing male dogs like flies.

“Shellie says dogs can take care of themselves, but they can’t,” Nelson said in a recent interview.

The weekend before the attack on Gorman, Tank and Betty had been left in Wilson’s back yard, Nelson said.

Tank, who was destroyed by the Humane Society on Sept. 25, “was out in that yard, tied up to the deck, with no cover,” she said. “It poured rain two of those days.”

Betty, who remains at the Humane Society as evidence in the Gorman attack, was loose in the yard, Nelson said.

“They were back there crying and crying,” she said. “I wanted to take them out of there and over here.”

Neighbor Wick and his wife, Louise, called animal control three times about Wilson’s dogs running loose and tearing up garbage.

“You’d see them barking at the fence, yapping, lonely, looking for somebody,” Ken Wick said.

There was a wire fence around Wilson’s backyard held down with stakes, but neighbors said it wasn’t secure. After one animal control visit, Nelson said, Martin, Wilson’s son, rolled big logs in front of a gap, but dogs continued to get out.

Nelson and Jenna Foster remember dogs getting their heads stuck while trying to get out under Wilson’s fence.

Sometimes, they’d come over to Nelson’s house for food, and sleep on her front yard, the couple said. Other times, the dogs would roam.


NO MORE DOGS


Wilson told The News Tribune she had dogs because “we love them” and “need watchdogs.” But she said she doesn’t plan to have any more after the attack on Gorman.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the neighbors and (it’s) not good for the dogs,” she said.

Meanwhile, Gorman has hired an attorney and is planning to sue Wilson, and perhaps others, said her friend Leana Beasley.

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/183523.html

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M. ALEXANDER OTTO; alex.otto@thenewstribune.com
Published: May 16th, 2008 01:00 AM

A mother and her son who owned two pit pulls that mauled a Gig Harbor woman in her home last August pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor charges.
Shellie Wilson, 46, and Zachary Martin, 19, each pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to own a dog that attacks. The charges were reduced from owning a dog that attacks.

Their pit bull, Betty, and another pit bull under their care, Tank, attacked 60-year-old-Sue Gorman, who has several long-standing medical problems, in her home Aug. 21.

Wilson and Martin, who had been free on bail, were each sentenced to four years’ probation, two years of suspended jail time and 30 days in jail or on electronic home monitoring.

They’re also required to pay restitution to Gorman, to not own dogs for four years and to forfeit ownership of Betty.

Gorman was unavailable for comment Thursday.

She suffered severe lacerations to her arms and other parts of her body in the attack, and was hospitalized briefly.

She since has returned to her home, two doors down from the pit bulls’ owners, according to her friend Leana Beasley.

Gorman is doing well, but her arms are numb and “horribly scarred” because of her injuries, Beasley said.

Martin said Thursday that he was “very sorry for any physical or mental hurt that was caused to Sue Gorman.”

“I have no problem with (covering) medical bills and property damage,” he said. “You have to take responsibility. The dogs shouldn’t have got in her house. That’s what it comes down to.”

Wilson said the sentence was fair.

“This was a tragic accident,” she said.

The two pit bulls came into Gorman’s bedroom the morning of the attack and set upon her service dog, Misty. The attack awakened Gorman, who was mauled when she tried to get the dogs off Misty.

The pit bulls also killed Romeo, a neighbor’s Jack Russell terrier who was in the room.

Tank was euthanized after the attack; Betty was kept as evidence in a cage at the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. She will be euthanized if Martin and Wilson forfeit her as ordered, said Denise McVicker, deputy director of the Human Society.

A restitution hearing for Gorman’s medical care and other costs is scheduled for July 15.

Wilson and Martin originally faced felony counts, but the charges were reduced to misdemeanors because they allowed for a longer ban on dog ownership and for supervision to ensure the ban is followed, said Pierce County deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen.

“In my mind, it’s kind of the best for everyone,” Sorensen said. “It allows the defendants not to have a felony conviction on their (record), and it allows the community to have four year of protection against bad dog ownership.”

Because of the attack, Betty hasn’t gotten out of her cage at the Humane Society and can’t go outside, McVicker said. Regarding her likely death, “the fate of this dog lays with the owners,” she said.

A News Tribune investigation last year found that neighbors had complained for a decade about dogs from Wilson’s house running loose and menacing people, including small children.

“If the owners had kept the dogs home and safe, there would not have been an incident,” McVicker said.

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/361980.html

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By Adam Lynn
The News Tribune

TACOMA — A Pierce County jury has awarded $2.2 million in damages to a Gig Harbor woman who was mauled by two pit bulls that entered her home through an open sliding-glass door four years ago.

The bulk of the judgment will be split between the owners of one of the pit bulls and Pierce County.

The jury found Shellie Wilson and her son, Zachary Martin, 52 percent liable for the injuries and property damage suffered by Sue Gorman during the mauling.

Martin owned one of the animals, named Betty, that attacked Gorman, and he and his mother were looking after the other, named Tank. They'll have to pay about $1.1 million to Gorman.

Jurors assigned 42 percent of the blame to Pierce County, which will have to pay about $924,000.

Gorman's attorneys — Michael McKasy and Shelly Speir — argued during trial that county animal control was negligent for not taking action against Wilson and Martin despite having received numerous complaints about their dogs running loose and terrorizing people.

Gorman filed two complaints about her neighbors' dogs in the months before the attack on Aug. 21, 2007.

The jury assigned 5 percent of the blame for the attack to Jacqueline Evans-Hubbard, who left Tank in the care of Wilson and Martin when she went out of town.

Jurors said Gorman was 1 percent to blame.

McKasy, who talked to jurors after the Friday verdict, said they expressed particular concern that county animal control did not do more to address neighbors' complaints about the dogs.

"They had 14 complaints," he said. "The dog (Betty) could have and should have been confiscated."

The county's attorney, Ron Williams, argued during trial that Wilson and Martin were to blame for Gorman's injuries for not keeping Betty and Tank under control and confined to their property.

Gorman was mauled after awakening to find Betty and Tank in her bedroom attacking her service dog and a neighbor's Jack Russell terrier.

She had left her sliding-glass door open so Misty and Romeo could come and go from her house.

She was mauled when she tried to pull the pit bulls off the other dogs. Romeo, the Jack Russell terrier, died in the attack, and the two pit bulls later were put down after their owners surrendered them to animal control. Misty survived.

Gorman suffered bites to her arms, face, neck, chest and nose and was hospitalized briefly after the attack.

It's unclear how the pit bulls escaped Wilson's and Martin's house that morning.

from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015920208_pitbulls16.html